(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – Guthrie County Youth “Investigated STEM” at STEM Fest 2023! The event was held April 1, 2023, at the ACGC High School in Guthrie Center, hosted by Guthrie County ISU Extension and the Southwest Iowa STEM Region housed at Southwestern Community College. At STEM Fest there were several educational stations held inside the school, as well as some educational stations outside. (See photos submitted from the event, below – click on an image to enlarge)

Krista Downing, Program Coordinator said hands-on activities included gear ratios on a conveyor belt, creating cover crop monsters, semi-truck driving simulator, ethanol’s pH changing demonstration and much more. Youth Coordinator, Laura Larson, said “STEM fest 2023 was a huge success. We had a great turnout from the community and so many youth got to take part in some hands-on learning activities. They were also introduced to some potential career paths they could take down the road. It was a great morning!”

Participants at STEM Fest included youth of all ages with their family’s attendance was around 300 participants total. There was participation from youth in multiple school districts in the county as well as some home-schooled youth, and multiple registrations from outside of Guthrie County! Door prize winners for teachers with the most youth at STEM Fest were from Guthrie Center Elementary – Gruber and Renslow. Youth door prize winners from around the county were Hunter Hays, Blythe Michelsen, Donovan Wetzel, Kroy Redfern, Blaine Udelhoven, Hazel Comly, Reed Leo, Hope Recker, Waylon Sudbrock and Charolette Owens.

Businesses and organizations that volunteered their time to host booths included: Guthrie County Master Gardeners; Blank Park Zoo; Panorama FFA; Iowa Motor Truck Association; Iowa PBS; New Opportunities Inc.; Iowa Corn Growers – Guthrie, Women in Science and Engineering (WISE); Whiterock Conservancy; Guthrie County REC; Guthrie County Farm Bureau; MidAmerican Energy; POET, Coon Rapids Plant; Guthrie County State Bank; Mary Barnett Library; Iowa DNR; Guthrie County ISU Extension; Rose Acres; Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office; Guthrie County Hospital and Clinics, and Guthrie County EMA.

Guthrie County ISU Extension officials say “We would like to extend an enormous thank you to all who helped make this event possible. Thank you to our businesses that volunteered time to host a booth, thank you to the youth and families that came out and participated, thank you to ACGC Schools for hosting the event, and thank you to the committee for all the background work they put into the event. Events like this are not possible without the support of the community.”

(Atlantic, Iowa) – During their meeting Wednesday evening, the City Council in Atlantic passed two resolutions calling for Public Hearings on the Dissolution of the Community Promotion and Cable TV Commissions. City Administrator John Lund noted in his agenda notes, that the Personnel and Finance Committee reviewed the issues on January 27 and recommended the CPC be dissolved. The committee cited issues with attendance and engagement with the Community Promotion Commission. The Committee’s meetings require posting agendas and minutes, Lund said, while another issue is that amount of red tape for a body that distributes funds for important, annual community events planned and executed by the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce.

Chamber Executive Director Bailey Smith, and Brian Ruge Chamber Board President, said they were caught off-guard when they first learned of the plan to dissolve the Commission.

The dissolution means the Chamber of Commerce will receive $45,000 under the new L.O.S.T. progress budget, and Produce in the Park will receive $8,500. The remaining funds will be under the City Council’s discretion to allocate annually, depending on need and resource availability. Atlantic City Clerk Barb Barrick explained the procedure of dissolving commissions or boards approved by the City Council.

The Council set April 19 as the date for that public hearing. During the April 19th meeting also, there will be a Public Hearing on the dissolution of the Cable Television Commission.

City Administrator John Lund has said well before COVID-19 pretty much ended in-person meetings for a while, the Commission was informally dissolved for similar reasons as the Community Promotion Commission. He added “There were rarely any issues to discuss…”and the Commission members “…had no objections to the termination of the Commission.”

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Lottery has begun the process of transitioning from a 365 day to 180 day time limit for redeeming winning lotto tickets that was approved by the Lottery Board in December. Lottery spokesperson, Mary Neubauer, says 180 days is the standard for most lotteries in the country. “That’s still approximately six months — gives you plenty of time, to make decisions, you know, consult a financial planner or a lawyer if you need to, but get into claim the prize. It makes the process more secure, because obviously, with the passage of time, it gets harder and harder for everyone to remember all of the details involved in a ticket purchase, or even to hang on to a ticket,” Neubauer says.

The first step in the process is what’s called a step down, where the lottery gradually drops the limit on advance ticket purchases. “The number of drawings for which you can buy plays in advance in Powerball, Mega Millions, Lotto America, Lucky for Life, will be limited and the number will become less and less as we get closer to that changeover date,” she says. Players are normally able to purchase tickets for ten straight drawings which could lead to several tickets with different expiration times. “You might have a ticket that spanned multiple drawings, and some of those plays would have 365 days for you to claim the prize, and some of them would have 180 days,” Neubauer says. “That would be confusing for players and the lottery.”

Neubauer says the step down allows them to make a good transition to the new time limit. She says it is a temporary change for those who like to buy several tickets in one stop. “So I would just say to players, we know this is a bit of an inconvenience, please bear with us. It’s all part of this prize claim change that’s being made,” she says. “And by late April, everything will have gone back to normal and the prize claim change will have been made, and you’ll be able to buy tickets again for up to ten drawings in advance.”

Neubauer says the impact of the change has a little bigger impact than other changes because the step down is happening for four games.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Bicycle Summit will be held today (Thursday) in the Des Moines metro area to promote cycling as a form of transportation, recreation, and health. Mark Wyatt, executive director of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, says the conference will feature a variety of experts in the field of cycling and trail development. Wyatt says people who will attend include cycling enthusiasts, bike retailers, city planners, trail builders, tourism officials, and more.

Workshops will include topics like, “Building Sustainable Bike Trails,” “Seven Interventions for Bike and Pedestrian Safety,” and, “How to Maximize Your Trail Brand.” Wyatt says Iowa easily has more than two-thousand miles of dedicated bike trails, and he says more are needed as there are still “trail impaired” areas. The summit opens at 9 A-M at the Courtyard Marriott Conference Center in Ankeny.

(Radio Iowa) – Five Iowa companies are receiving more than eight million dollars in state water infrastructure grants.

AgCertain in Boone is getting a grant of three-point-nine million dollars for a new system that the company says will reduce city water usage by 85 percent and lower costs by one-point-two million dollars. Arconic in Davenport will use the two-point-two million dollar grant for a system it says will cut their water use by nearly 77 percent. C-J Bio in Fort Dodge says its one-point-eight million dollar grant will reduce its water draw from the city by 600-thousand gallons a day and their wastewater discharge will drop by 760-thousand gallons a day.

Prairie Farms, Dubuque says it will use the 275-thousand dollar grant to cut water used and wastewater from its dairy operations — saving them 85-thousand dollars in water costs. Hormel Foods in Dubuque says its 57-thousand dollar grant will help reduce water demand from the city by nine percent and waster water discharge by nearly 12 percent.